Owning a sports team is often reserved for the ultra-wealthy in popular leagues like the NFL and the NBA, where every franchise is now worth more than $3 billion, but Bernard Arnault tops Forbes’ annual list of the world’s richest owners thanks to a club with a comparatively puny price tag.

The 77-year-old Frenchman, whose estimated net worth of $171 billion places him No. 7 overall on Forbes’ 2026 World’s Billionaires ranking, controls Paris FC through his family holding company after acquiring a majority stake in the French soccer club in 2024 at a reported valuation of around $100 million—or about 0.06% of his current net worth.

Arnault has a $45 billion lead on Los Angeles Clippers owner and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who held the crown as the world’s richest sports owner for the past two years and is now worth an estimated $126 billion. But Arnault’s coronation is also the result of a reclassification. For the annual owners ranking, Forbes counts only majority stakes in certain major sports leagues, including France’s Ligue 1. However, Paris FC was stuck in the second-tier Ligue 2 at the time of Arnault’s purchase, keeping the LVMH CEO and chairman—once the world’s richest person—off the owners list until the club earned a promotion to the top division with a second-place finish in 2025.

Ballmer actually falls to No. 3 among sports owners this year, with his net worth up a modest 7% from 2025’s $118 billion after an uneven 12 months for Microsoft’s stock, which closed at a record high in October but has fallen 25% since as the high costs and competitive pressures of the AI boom weigh on software companies. Leapfrogging him in the ranking is the Denver Broncos’ Rob Walton, a Walmart heir with a $146 billion fortune, up 33% from last year’s $110 billion.

The 25 richest sports owners are now collectively worth $903 billion, an astonishing 49% increase from the 2025 list’s $607 billion, and all 25 exceed $10 billion for the first time, with Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank setting the floor at $11.1 billion. It’s indicative of a new generation of owners who in many cases made billions in other industries before entering sports, rather than having most of their fortunes tied up in teams that they acquired at bargain prices decades ago.

Even though the NFL is the world’s most valuable sports league, its concentration of longtime family-owned franchises means only eight of the league’s owners made the cut, with the NBA not far behind with seven owners listed. The most popular sport represented is soccer, part of the portfolios of 13 owners in the ranking, across seven leagues. The commercialization of the beautiful game is fitting for a group of global billionaires gearing up for a World Cup year, although four owners from Major League Soccer—David Tepper, Stanley Kroenke, Robert Kraft and Blank—also control more valuable NFL teams.

The 2026 list features three new additions alongside Arnault: Indonesian billionaire R. Budi Hartono, who owns Italian soccer club Como 1907 with his brother, Michael; Peter Mallouk, the new owner of MLS’s Sporting Kansas City; and Dan Friedkin, who owns the Premier League’s Everton and Serie A’s A.S. Roma.

Here are the 25 richest sports team owners on the 2026 World’s Billionaires list.

NET WORTHS AS OF MARCH 1, 2026.

Net Worth: $171 billion*

Source of Wealth: LVMH

Paris FC has been an afterthought compared with its next-door Ligue 1 rival, Paris Saint-Germain—winner of 11 of the last 13 league titles—but Arnault is trying to build a contender with help from co-investor Red Bull, which now employs ex-Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp as the group’s head of global soccer. (This season, Paris FC is 13th in the standings, comfortably out of the relegation zone.) Arnault, the 77-year-old CEO and chairman of LVMH, has also been steering his luxury goods company more into the sports world with a ten-year sponsorship deal with Formula 1 that was announced in 2024 and is reportedly worth upwards of $1 billion.

Net Worth: $146 billion*

One-Year Change: 33%

Source of Wealth: Walmart

Citizenship: United States

Walton, who installed his son-in-law Greg Penner as the Broncos’ official control owner in 2023, has quickly made Denver a contender since buying the franchise in 2022. The team owned the best record in the AFC last season, although its playoff run was derailed by quarterback Bo Nix’s injury at the end of a thrilling overtime win against the Buffalo Bills. The Broncos aren’t the only sports asset in the 81-year-old Walton’s portfolio, either. The son of Walmart cofounder Sam Walton quietly bought a 10% stake in the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2024 at a $2 billion valuation, Sportico recently reported.

Net Worth: $126 billion

Team: Los Angeles Clippers

Source of Wealth: Microsoft

Citizenship: United States

Microsoft’s tepid stock performance over the past year has been the least of Ballmer’s worries. The 69-year-old’s $50 million investment in Aspiration, a drop in the bucket for the world’s 15th-richest person, has come under scrutiny because of the failed fintech startup’s $28 million endorsement deal with Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, originally reported by podcaster Pablo Torre. Leonard appears to have done little to nothing to earn that money, raising suspicions that Ballmer or the team’s front office routed money through the startup to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap. The league is investigating, but the Clippers have denied any wrongdoing.

Net Worth:........

© Forbes